Providence, Max Barry's follow-up to the immensely entertaining Lexicon, is yet another example of his ability to deliver big ideas in the form of breathlessly efficient sci-fi thrillers. The title comes from the name of the enormous spaceship, Providence Five, that carries the novel's four protagonists into a far-off war against aliens, colloquially called "salamanders." The spaceship largely runs itself, thanks to an advanced artificial intelligence, leaving the crew members to stew in routine and boredom. At first, the story belongs to a long tradition of books and films about isolated spacefarers slowly going insane, but Providence adds a number of twists and turns.
The artificial intelligence pilots Providence Five deep into enemy territory, and its powerful weapons kill hundreds of thousands of salamanders before they can put up a fight. Barry's futuristic warfare is conducted at a dispassionate remove that echoes the modern use of drones and missile strikes. Meanwhile, the crew engages in a propaganda offensive: posting messages on social media to maintain public support for a hugely expensive war with uncertain goals.
Readers will not have trouble picking apart the political commentary baked into the plot, but Providence pushes past easy contemporary parallels to concern itself with existential questions of free will and purpose. The crew members are hostages to the artificial intelligence's decision-making, which is perhaps as alien and incomprehensible as the salamanders themselves. In their abundant free time, the crew are left to ponder how much influence they really have over the direction of their lives. One of the characters advances a theory that the war is something close to a fundamental process: "the war isn't even between people and salamanders. It's between human genes and salamander genes. They're just using us to fight it, as their throwaway survival machines."
In some ways, Providence is a reverse 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of a cruel and dispassionate AI, the main threat to the crew seems to be themselves. Anders starts playing dangerous games with ninja stars and disappearing into the bowels of the ship, Gilly becomes obsessively focused on small malfunctions plaguing the ship, Talia struggles with her increasing loneliness, and their commander, Jackson, is consumed by the trauma and regret of a battlefield disaster. Barry skips between each character's point of view, showing the crew's dysfunction from every angle.
For all the novel's heady ideas, Barry maintains a nonstop pace and an economical, riveting prose style. Though the subject matter can be heavy, Providence is ultimately a lot of fun, easily read in a sitting or two. As always, Barry excels at hitting the sweet spot between brainy and entertaining. --Hank Stephenson, manuscript reader, the Sun magazine
Shelf Talker: This smart and fun take on military science fiction meditates on the increasingly dispassionate nature of warfare, in the form of a crackerjack thriller set deep in enemy territory.